Friday, January 20, 2006

Introvert Night at the PupHouse

Although I wasn't up at any incredibly early hour this morning, by 9am I was sitting down to work at the computer and realizing with some hope that I felt more lucid than I had for the previous two days. So I answered work email for a half-hour before hearing, again, from Ms. YMCA via email again.

I did like her reply. It did not meet with my approval.

So I kissed the kids goodbye and grabbed my gun knitting and headed over to the bank. From the bank I obtained printouts of the EFT transactions. I drove over to the Y and got what I wanted on at least two different levels. I was right. They were wrong. And now my twins have another four weeks of swim lessons scheduled.

Score one for my team.

I drove home and got back on the computer. More work-related email. More hurried typing, more clock racing. ACK! 1:15! Grab Max, stuff him and piano bag in truck. Speed off to lesson. Max plays.

On Thursday nights if Chris is home he watches the twinkies and I take Max to group piano and sit in the corner and knit. My only other job is to give him the evil eye if he requires it or to gesture to him with the universal sign for "write that down!" [Following which he usually gives the universal sign for "huh?"] If Chris is not home then I take the twinkies with me, but they're not welcome IN the class, so I just drop off Max and go run other errands. I didn't have other errands last night, but Chris was in Altoona, so I put a video in the truck (the truck has a VHS player, LOL -- freakin' 5-yr-old truck was da BOMB when it came out--right before everyone started putting DVD players in their minivans) and worked on my knitting.

At the end of class one of the other mothers came over to the truck and gushed about how well Max played this song that's been stuck in his craw for the last three months. He got unstuck. I said something along the lines of "Great! Thanks." Which seemed to disappoint her. I'm not sure what I was supposed to say. Honestly? I knew he'd get unstuck. I wasn't surprised. And I would have rather have heard it from him.

So at his lesson today Mrs. B in her Russian accent that I STILL find so delightful (hey, it's a SMALL town we've moved to, not much happening) spent a good five minutes lecturing him about how important it was that he recognize that stuckness happens and so does unstuckness and therefore one should always persevere -- or not! That sometimes it's okay to kind of move on and then come back to the piece later. But quitting is never an option. She knew that before the break he was moaning and groaning about maybe quitting piano in a year (hah! good luck kid, not with me as your demontor mother) and all because he was discouraged about this song. So she was rubbing his success in. In the process of the lecture she talked about her own struggles, which inevitably leads into her playing bits and pieces of various songs.

Max and I enjoy her lectures a lot. Her piano playing is WONDERFUL. Just :::happy sigh::: wonderful.

Anyway, eventually the lecture was over and the lesson continued. Then it was back home and back to working on putting these poetry packages together. I'd spent (no joke) four hours and $60 at Kinko's yesterday making copies and today I needed to compile all of them, so that's what I did.

At 6pm I stopped and fed all the 3rd and 4th grade boys on Deepwood Drive as well as the twinkies (it was spaghetti and meatballs, so it's maybe $1 more to feed a few more kids and since they were all here playing Super Mario Sunshine anyway . . .) and then at 6:40 I sent all but Max home. At 7pm we went to basketball and I brought the poems with me. At 8:30 we were back home and by 9:30 I'd put everyone but me and Emily to bed. Emily is hiding under my bed, so I can't put her in her kennel. Clever girl. Chris is sick so he went to bed four hours earlier than usual. Want to bet he'll still go racing tomorrow? If he has what I had I predict he'll regret it though.

So there I was at 10pm, still working on children's poems, with the house to myself. At midnight I was nearly done and my mp3 player switched from the last David Ramsey show I had saved on there to some of the music. I had to get up and dance to this one.

No More Drama
Mary J. Blige

Verse 3
Oh, it feels so good
When you let go
Of all the drama in your life
Now you're free from all the pain
(free from all the pain)
Free from all the games
(free from all the games)
Free from all the stress
(free from all the stress)
To find your happiness...
I don't know...
Only God knows where the story ends
For me
But I know where the story begins
It's up to us to choose
Whether we win or lose
And I choose to win

Can I have an Amen to that? Amen.

Next up was Sheryl Crow, who ordinarily I'm not that fond of, but she got this one right.

"Soak Up The Sun"

My friend the communist
Holds meetings in his RV
I can't afford his gas
So I'm stuck here watching TV
I don't have digital
I don't have diddly squat
It's not having what you want
It's wanting what you've got

[CHORUS:]
I'm gonna soak up the sun
Gonna tell everyone
To lighten up (I'm gonna tell 'em that)
I've got no one to blame
For every time I feel lame
I'm looking up o I'm gonna soak up the sun
I'm gonna soak up the sun

I've got a crummy job
It don't pay near enough
To buy the things it takes
To win me some of your love
Every time I turn around
I'm looking up, you're looking down
Maybe something's wrong with you
That makes you act the way you do
Maybe i am crazy too

[CHORUS]

I'm gonna soak up the sun
While it's still free
I'm gonna soak up the sun
Before it goes out on me
Don't have no master suite
I'm still the king of me
You have a fancy ride, but baby
I'm the one who has the key
Every time I turn around
I'm looking up, you're looking down
Maybe something's wrong with you
That makes you act the way you do
Maybe I am crazy too

[CHORUS]

I'm gonna soak up the sun
Got my 45 on
So I can rock on.

I finished up the poetry project and put everything in fedex boxes. I'll sleep in tomorrow morning and then go drop the boxes off at fedex tomorrow. Then it's on to a weekend of writing math stuff. That's alright. Math is good and it's a relief to have my brain come back from its virus-induced vacation.

2 comments:

Kristen said...

i actually like sheryl crow -- in fact, i believe that chris came with us for my brother's - hmm - what would it be? 18th? birthday present which was a concert in SF w/me and rob -- we saw Crowded House and Sheryl Crow was the opening act. she was much -- hmmm -- rougher? less refined, enjoying her beer in between songs.

anyway, not so fond of her being w/lance armstrong, but whatever....

and the song, Soak Up The Sun, i am fairly certain that it's neil finn (of crowded house and split enz) who wrote that song for her. it's a good one indeed.

Anonymous said...

Amen, sistah. No More Drama is my favoriate Mary J. song.

I like Sheryl Crow, too. Have you heard her song The Difficult Kind?

Jill